MICRO-ORGANISMS 



touch him. We then proceeded directly to 

 the steamboat waiting for us on the East 

 River, which at that time was filled with 

 floes of ice, and we paced the deck in a 

 biting cold wind, hoping thereby to disin- 

 fect our clothes. After a two miles' trip 

 we landed, when my colleague took his 

 carriage to visit a woman whom he had 

 attended a few days before, in confine- 

 ment, with a pair of twins. Twelve days 

 afterwards both infants broke out with 

 smallpox, to the consternation of the 

 mother, and the feigned astonishment of 

 my colleague. 



We may remark in passing that the in- 

 finitesimal size of the agent of yellow fever 

 raises the question how much of that sub- 

 stance called matter is necessary to make 

 a powerful living thing. It is hard to 

 imagine anything more effective than it 

 in the work it does, which may destroy 

 in a few hours a strong man in the prime 

 67 



